Wednesday, January 23, 2008

digital literacy - spring 2008

as i mentioned yesterday, i'm teaching two courses this spring. my second class meets tuesday and thursday evenings and is called digital literacy.

each semester, USF offers one "davies forum," an honors-level seminar devoted to a timely and important topic of a selected professor's choosing. my proposal titled "digital literacy" was selected for spring 08. in addition to attracting some of USF's smartest and most creative students, davies forum are cool because they come with a healthy budget. as a result, ten guest speakers will visit USF and share their ideas, projects, questions, and curiosities about literacy in a digital age. plus, we'll have at least three field trips. i am supremely excited to teach this course and give lots of thanks to all who contributed to its design.

Course Description:Facebook and Fox News, tivo and TV, youtube and yahoo, books and blogs, ipods, iphones, itunes, ieverything – we are pretty much swimming in information. How do we navigate through it all? How do we find the good stuff? And which kinds of information should we use for which kinds of research and creative projects?

At the same time, information, it seems, is changing before our eyes. Today, in our Web 2.0 world, information is often something we both consume and produce. What does it mean, and what possibilities are opened up, when we can add to and annotate, comment on and contribute?

In Digital Literacy we will explain what literacy means – and can mean – in a digital age, our age. We will read, write, and reflect. We will design, create, and construct. We will participate, contribute, and collaborate.

Learning Goals:Upon course completion, Davies Scholars will learn:1. How to navigate, evaluate, cite, and contribute to existing knowledge;2. How to construct and manage a creative, collaborative, and responsible digital identity; and3. How to collaborate (preferably effectively and creatively) with others.

Required Texts:* Jane Jacobs, Death and Life of Great American Cities (Random House, 1961)* Henry Jenkins, Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide (NYU Press, 2006)* Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art (Harper, 1994)* A one-year Flickr pro account subscription, $24.95* You are required to make, purchase, or barter for a bound, paper-based journal.

(A Note about Reading: The schedule below offers a rough outline of what we will read and discuss throughout the semester. Please, however, be aware that you will be reading much more. Much of your reading (and viewing and listening) for this course will be a product of your own library and online research, tailored toward topics that interest you.)

(A Second Note about Reading: Nearly every Thursday evening we will host guest speakers. In the cases when guest speakers have blogs, you are required to spend a significant time with their blog prior to their campus visit. This does not mean visiting the blog for 2-3 minutes. This means spending a few hours reading the blog, becoming acquainted with some of the blogger’s key themes, following various discussions via readers’ comments, tracing threads through tags, ets.)

WEEK 9:Tuesday, March 25Read: Jane Jacobs, "The Uses of Sidewalks: Assimilating Children"; "The Uses of Sidewalks: Safety"; and "The Uses of Sidewalks: Contact" from Death and Life of Great American Cities (Random House, 1961); Eric Klinenberg, "Race, Place, and Vulnerability: Urban Neighborhoods and the Ecology of Support" from Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago (University of Chicago Press, 2002), pp. 79- 128; Peirce Lewis, “Axioms of the Landscape: Some Guides to the American Scene,” Journal of Architectural Education (September 1976), pp. 6-9.

WEEK 15:Tuesday, May 6: To be determinedThursday, May 8: To be determined

Grades:Projects: 50%Participation: 50%

Guest Speakers (in order of appearance):Mary Madden (February 7) is Senior Research Specialist at the Pew Internet and American Life Project where she researches music and the internet, intellectual property issues online, teens and communication technology, and college students and the internet.

Ivan Chew (February 14) heads the Adult & Young People's Services (Public Libraries) of the National Library Board, Singapore. When he's off work, Ivan draws, paints, blogs, runs a mailing list for librarians, and works on original songs for a collaborative online music album.

Brewster Kahle (February 21) serves as founder and digital librarian at the non-profit Internet Archive and helps direct the Open Content Alliance. Brewster’s stated goal is “Universal Access to all Knowledge.”

Bryan Alexander (February 28) is Director of Research at NITLE, where he researches and writes on the critical uses of computers and teaching in terms of the interdisciplinary liberal arts and the contemporary development of cyberculture.Fred Stutzman (March 13) is a Ph.D. student at the University of North Carolina’s School of Information and Library Science, and Co-Founder and Developer of claimID.

Kelly Quinn (March 27) is an assistant professor of American Studies at Miami University. Kelly examines the dynamic relationship between people and places, and is keenly interested in the confluence of the arts, humanities, design, and social justice.

Kevin Epps (April 3) is the filmmaker behind Straight Outta Hunters Point (2001) and Rap Dreams (2006). He is currently working on The Black Rock which chronicles the experiences of African-American prisoners at Alcatraz.

Gardener, photographer, graphic designer, and crafty gal Gayla Trail (April 10) is the creator of the thriving online community You Grow Girl and the author of the popular gardening book, You Grow Girl: The Groundbreaking Guide to Gardening.

Francis Lake (April 17) is a manager and caretaker of Stonelake Farm, a small family farm in eastern Humboldt County, where he also runs the farm’s internship and artist residency programs.

Phillip Thurtle (May 1) is an assistant professor of the Comparative History of Ideas program and the History Department at the University of Washington and co-editor, with Robert Mitchell, of Data Made Flesh: Embodying Information and Semiotic Flesh: Information and the Human Body.

Jasmine Park (April 24) is the author of the prominent Seattle fashion blog Pike/Pine and publishes a weekly photo in the Seattle Times.

Srcsmgrl - you know, we've been conversing for a few years now via our blogs and comments and i never knew how we met. i knew you were in seattle, i knew you were in ballard, and i knew you were a librarian, but i never knew we met face to face.

i enjoyed being a small part of terry's class and got a lot of ideas from his class to bring towards mine. i just added a lot of funky stuff. =)

I am sure that Terry would be flattered to hear that. I loved all the classes he taught--but that one was like dessert. Yours sounds even cooler--my ambitious side wants to try to read the articles you have assigned your students, but my practical side knows I don't have enough hours in the day to do it. Can you recommend one or two to me that would really hit the spot?

David Silver, what an amazing class! My students loved the excerpt from Jenkins' book last semester: it's on the roster for my fall course. You are doing some awesome stuff and I am so excited that you are inviting librarians to talk to your group! Keep us posted.May our paths cross soon!

Your colleagues also benefit from these posts not only because we get important information about what others in the dept are teaching, but also because the links to readings allow us to grapple with some of the course materials. Surely you should lead a Faculty Development lunch session on teaching, collegiality & blogging, accompanied perhaps by Brother Robertson and myself...

srcsmgrl - one or two?!? impossible! seriously, in my mind, all of the readings are pretty much connected and build upon and converse with each other. they are inseparable! why don't you try to read at least one reading each week? some of the readings are very short and totally inspirational: consider reading "100 ideas" this week.

sheck! which excerpt/chapter from jenkins did you assign? yeah, i figure that librarians have a lot to say and teach and learn and contribute when it comes to literacy and digital literacy. =) there's a lot of USF librarians working on this class, too.

Boy Silver. I suggested to some pals that we try to read along as the semester moves. The readings draw; they do not repel! Mr. Seniority is pleased. (Mr. Seniority is not like you and me. He has *seniority.*)

I'm Raymond, an Information/Library Science student in Los Angeles. Will any of these "Digital Literacy" meetings be recorded and archived? (Or uploaded into YouTube or something like that?) Got a hunch my classmates (and maybe some co-workers) would be VERY interested. I would REALLY appreciate a response via email and THANK YOU in advance! :)

i agree, having Gayla Trail and Karen Schneider on the same syllabus makes me happy. so do topics as seemingly diverse as farming and facebook.

when you ask do i lecture, i assume you are asking whether i lecture in the class, right? in general, no - class is run as a seminar with seven students and i sharing our ideas and insights with one another. the only time formal lectures come into play is with the guest lecturers.

When asked what I ran, I guess you ask me, gave a lecture in the classroom, is not it? Generally, no - run as a seminar class with seven students, and I will share ideas and opinions with each other one-off lectures kanssa.Ainoa image is with the speakers.